He was lost utterly to our land, a wanderer over sea, while we waited
through twelve long months, and knew nothing; and his loving wife,
sad dweller with sad thoughts, was ever pining amid her tears. But
now the War-god, roused to fury, hath delivered her from the days
of her mourning.
(antistrophe 2)
May he come, may he come! Pause not the many-oared ship that carries
him, till he shall have reached this town, leaving the island altar
where, as rumour saith, he is sacrificing! Thence may he come, full
of desire, steeped in love by the specious device of the robe, on
which Persuasion hath spread her sovereign charm! (Deianeira comes
out of the house in agitation.)
Deianeira: Friends, how I fear that I may have gone too far in all
that I have been doing just now!
Leader: What hath happened, Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus?
Deianeira: I know not; but feel a misgiving that I shall presently
be found to have wrought a great mischief, the issue of a fair hope.
Studies
